Functional Design of Physical Internet Facilities: A Road-Based Transit Center

In their 2010 IMHRC paper, Montreuil, Meller and Ballot proposed a set of facility types that would be necessary to operate a Physical Internet, which they termed “π-nodes.” This paper is part of a three-paper series for the 2012 IMHRC where the authors provide functional designs of three PI facilities. This paper covers a road-based transit center, or road-based πtransit. The mission of a π-transit node is to enable the transfer of π carriers from their inbound to outbound destinations. Therefore, a roadbased π-transit provides a mechanism to transfer π-trailers from one truck to another. The objective of the paper is to provide a design that is feasible to meet the mission of this type of facility, identify ways to measure the performance of the design, and to identify research models that would assist in the design of such facilities. The functional design is presented in sufficient detail as to provide an engineer a proof of concept.